This invention relates to an automatic follow-up lighting system capable of tracking a moving object (such as a man or advertising balloon) automatically to light up the vicinity thereof. The automatic follow-up lighting system according to the present invention allows the lighting up of a moving object in a good light or even in a bad light, so that it can be widely used as a lighting apparatus (spotlights) for a bride and bridegroom, and actors in wedding halls, banqueting halls in a hotel, theaters, and also as a novel advertising medium projecting on a moving screen such as an advertising balloon.
In conventional lighting apparatuses, the position of an object such as a man is illuminated by an operator operating a spotlight provided on an electrically-powered turntable with a joy stick or the like. It will be very difficult for only one man to operate many lighting apparatuses, since the turntable need to be operated by remote controls with one-to-one correspondence. It will be also disadvantageous that the operation requires enormous labor and experience when the lighting angle of the lighting apparatus is different by an angle viewed from an operator.
At a place such as wedding halls, theaters, and banqueting halls where a number of lighting appartuses are frequency used, improving the operability of the lighting apparatuses has been a very important assignment. Consequently, an apparatus, which is not the kind that is operated by a man controlling an electrically-powered turntable, for automatically tracking for lighting securely in response to the movement of a moving object, has been strongly desired.